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I know many would be upset if oppo increased the price to $599 after the EAP, but IMO I think they will do just that. But give people a "preorder" or "initial release" price of $499. That way they can satisfy all the EAP people that didn't get randomly selected and also keep the player's perceived value higher.

OPPO could easily make this $599 on final release, and still not be able to keep up with demand. Sure, there'd be upset people, but even poor me would've shelled out the extra dough.

At $499, it's like getting the 983 plus a $100 BD player that has features unmatched by $200+ BD players. Still seems like a good deal to me.

Certainly, $499 gets it into the hands of more people, and provides more market-penetration and "facetime" with consumers, allowing the name "OPPO" to be known to a wider audience. But if $599 is required to keep OPPO a profitable company and allow them to stick around, I'd rather they did that.

Whatever keeps them in-business is fine by me. And that's how I felt before getting on the EAP, as I had already accepted that it'd be at least a $600 player, and was still ready to buy. $499 just ensured I didn't waste any time thinking about it.

"Your" isn't the same as "you're". "There", "their" and "they're" are also not the same. Please learn the difference.

$499, $599 still seems like a bargain to me after shelling out $800 a little over a year ago for a half done Samsung BDUP5K! I was hoping I would make the draw but not to be it seems. But I will be more then ready to buy when it is finally released.

I disagree with your disagreeing.There isn't (or shouldn't be) anyone in the EAP unwilling to pay full MSRP.Everyone would love a discount, but if you feel "bugged" if you don't get a discount, you don't have to participate, you are free to wait until the complete unit is available for MSRP without question of a discount.There are probably enough anxious people around that Oppo could even charge a premium for the EAP and participants wouldn't complain, just because people want it that extra couple of weeks or so.

I was expecting $600 for price {and would have paid} but $499 is great!!!! I can not wait for my unit to arrive in NH where it is cold to put on some Movies and Music to test this BABY out.

I think a $100 could be a deal breaker for many people. Keep it at $499, with all the features listed and it will sell extremely well especially after word-of-mouth gets out. Raise the price to $599, and many people will have to think long and hard about that.

Its only a hundred bucks man

As far as I am concerned $499 and $599 are both prices where I would expect just about 100% perfection.

If you guys got em for $199 and they would sell for $499 then id be pissed.

After having thought about this , I am very happy I am not an early adopter. $499 for a guinea pig's job , no thanks.

If a company has a good product it gets released, end of story. But not Oppo, they are unsure of their product so they gotta get a bunch of guinea pig's from AVS.

Yep, I am happy I am not one , if the Oppo performs less than I expect then I am probably gonna get a Pioneer BDP-09FD .

My comments about risk pertain to the fact that one has to pay for shipping to acquire it and possibly have the hassle of shipping it back to Oppo for correction/repairs if necessary. I'm sure most of you don't look at this as an issue. I look at it as Oppo getting Q&A for free. I wish my company could employ a 50 person Q&A department at no cost! The only other industry I can think of that has unpaid testers is the software industry. I guess the downside with that industry is that software mess ups can really screw up one's PC resulting in many lost hours or days of productivity. With the case of a Blu-Ray player, I guess that the worst that could happen is that you have to put off watching the rest of Ishtar for a couple of weeks.

Roberta, I would assume that Oppo would send you a prepaid shipping tag if you needed to return it for servicing during the EAP. Now, they have made it clear that if you don't like the unit, you can return it for full credit, but you'll pay return shipping.

But it doesn't upscale DVDs very well nor does it have the analog outputs that the BDP-83 has.

Not sure I see it as a fair comparison. BD55 might be closer, as far as outputs go, but not upscaling.

Yep, there's things the Oppo will do that others won't, it wasn't meant to be a comparison between those 2 players (other than the BD capabilities). It's just a matter of deciding whether you need those things. I have no need for analog outputs and my Pio Elite DV-59avi does a fantastic job with SD. It would be nice to only have one unit, but since I already own the other 2, $500 is a bit steep for convenience. But we'll see. I have totally discounted it yet.

But it seems pretty pricey compared to the $139 I spent on my Panny BD35, which has great BD PQ/AQ.

Apples and oranges. The BDP-83 has SACD and will have DVD-A capabilities. This unit will be replacing my sold off Denon DVD3910. If I didn't own a nice collection of SACD's or DVD-A, I would probably hang onto my $270 Pioneer 51 as you mentioned keeping the Panny.

I have an onkyo 803 receiver (1.1) and plan on checking it out via hdmi and analog. I just sold my speaker set up and will not be doing 5.1 until I move in 6 months. So I will be a stereo guy (and sub). My tv is an older samsung dlp (model 4674) and is 720p. For bluray, been using the PS3.

I'm mainly an audio guy. I have confidence the Oppo will perform for video. The audio portion is where I will be paying close attention. Wish I could test 5.1 but no can do until I get my Salk SongTowers down the road.

If anyone has specific questions feel free to PM me. I will post impressions that have value when i have something useful and avoid "it rocks!" posts.

Thanks,
Mike
Ps sorry in advance if there are typos. Need more practice with my phone.

Neuromancer invoked my name a couple pages back so I'll post my assessment.

I've been involved in the Beta testing program for this player from the beginning -- over 6 months now. It has come a long way!

As shipped to the EAP purchasers the player has the feature set and performance that I believe justify the price and that continue Oppo's reputation for delivering the goods. It is a serious contender to become the Blu-Ray player I recommend, finally supplanting the PS3. What's more, it will likely become the first Blu-Ray player that I recommend for dual use -- both Blu-Ray and SD-DVD for folks who care about the quality of SD-DVD playback.

The only thing holding it back right now is that there are still bugs that need fixing.

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I use only HDMI output from this player, so I won't offer any specific comments on the quality of its analog audio output.

Originally I used the player attached to my Anthem Statement D2 pre-pro (an HDMI V1.1 device). I now use it attached to my new Anthem Statement D2v pre-pro (an HDMI V1.3c device).

For comparison, I use a PS3 as a Blu-Ray player.

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So some specifics:

1) Noise Level: The Oppo BDP-83 includes a fan. If I didn't tell you that you would likely never know. There simply isn't fan noise during playback. I have my Oppo sitting out in the open about 10 feet from where I sit. The only time you ever hear the fan is when the fan control logic resets itself briefly, as for example during the loading of a disc. I kid you not, some of the Beta testers have taken to mounting a mirror behind their Oppo so they can even tell when, if ever, the fan is spinning. The mechanism that opens and closes the disc tray is a bit noisier than I'd like but of course that's not a noise that happens during playback.

2) Speed: I ran a set of comparison tests between the Oppo and the PS3 that I last updated a month back. I've not re-run them with the latest firmware, but I have no reason to believe the answers would be different. The bottom line is that the Oppo matches or beats the performance of the PS3 in all but two categories: (1) Navigation through BD-Java disc menus is somewhat slower than the PS3, and (2) Initial loading of BD-Live stuff is slower than the PS3. In contrast, disc load times match or beat the PS3, disc menu loading matches the PS3, and navigation during playback (e.g., chapter forward/back) is dramatically faster than the PS3.

3) Feature Set: The Oppo is basically there now. BD-Java, BD-Bonus View, BD-Live, and lossless audio decoding (TrueHD and DTS-HD MA) are all in there and working now. Add to that Oppo's high quality playback of SD-DVD discs and CDs. Add to that the numerous other media formats the Oppo also handles. I'll let others talk about use of the other media formats.

4) Appearance: The Oppo is simple, clean, and unobtrusive.

5) Remote: Functional. Back-lit. Decent button layout. If you like to use the original equipment remote this one will work for you.

6) Upgrades: Supports new firmware installs over the internet or via USB thumb drive or disc. The internet support is direct wired ethernet (not WiFi radio networking), so if you prefer to use WiFi you will need to pair the Oppo with a Wifi access point of your choice. I.e., use mine with an Apple Airport Express.

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I use my Oppo primarily in the Source Direct mode -- letting my D2v do the de-interlacing and scaling of SD-DVDs for example. But I have tested the de-interlacing of the Oppo and it is very good, and I have a similar reaction to the scaling in the Oppo. The de-interlacing is a little weak when the content is video-based, but worlds better than what the PS3 does in that case.

In Source Direct I get HDMI YCbCr 4:4:4 480i/59.94 video from the Oppo for SD-DVD playback. I get 1080i/59.94 or 1080p/23.976 video for Blu-Ray playback. The Oppo supports Deep Color output at either 30 or 36 bits.

Source Direct bypasses the video processor in the Oppo, meaning some of the picture adjustments are not available, but you still get basic functionality such as lip-sync adjustment if you need it or data format conversion.

You can change between Source Direct output and any explicit, fully processed, output resolution on the fly using a dedicated button on the remote.

You can also bring up the Oppo's Setup menu on the fly -- while disc playback is happening -- and make changes that way.

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The player is sufficiently bug free at this point to be called "stable". You won't be fighting playback hangs or player crashes.

However there are still quite a few bugs being actively worked by Oppo.

For example, there are some cases where the Oppo choses the wrong aspect ratio for 4:3 content. There are audio tracks that result in momentary audio dropouts when bitstreaming audio. There are cases where secondary audio (director's commentary) is balky.

And the HDMI handshake is still not as robust as, for example, what the PS3 produces. You may need to force a new handshake (switch inputs in your AVR away from the Oppo and back), or even power cycle the Oppo. The typical results of a failed handshake are (1) no video lock at at all -- continuous retries, (2) "posterized" video, (3) video with colors swapped, and (4) distorted audio.

NOTE: Since I use Source Direct, I get a new handshake when switching between normal Blu-Ray content and SD "extras" content due to the output resolution change. So I see more handshakes than folks using an explicit, processed, output resolution.

But all of these things are being worked on. We Beta testers have been seeing weekly updates.

Any Blu-Ray player is a complicated product, and the Oppo is perhaps more complicated than most due to its ambitious feature set. But I've seen the progress Oppo has made over the past couple months and I have no doubt they will reach the finish line.

You Early Adopter Program owners are in for a treat! But the player is not yet ready for anyone who can't tolerate the remaining glitches.
--Bob

So this is a feature now? The question came up numerous times in the previous thread, and the response was always that it was only via USB or CDR for the time being and while the hardware could technically support internet updates over the RJ45, it didn't at the moment and there was no word as to when, if ever, it might.

"Your" isn't the same as "you're". "There", "their" and "they're" are also not the same. Please learn the difference.

So this is a feature now? The question came up numerous times in the previous thread, and the response was always that it was only via USB or CDR for the time being and while the hardware could technically support internet updates over the RJ45, it didn't at the moment and there was no word as to when, if ever, it might.

I haven't seen any handshake issues for some time, other than the handshakes take place more often that we'd like. Any change in input resolution triggers a handshake, and this isn't going to change. So if you have the player set to 24p output, if the stupid disc author has included 60i/p menu or title screen content you will see a handshake. It's amazing how many 24p BD discs have 60i/p content in the menus, extras or title screens.

But I thinks it's reasonable to expect that the more processing you have downstream from the player, the more potential for handshake issues there is.

The nature of BD, between it's complicated technology and DRM, seem to require regular firmware updates so I see this as a major milestone in the BDP83 (not that I'm incapable of upgrading the firmware in any number of other ways. Just a matter of convenience).

"Your" isn't the same as "you're". "There", "their" and "they're" are also not the same. Please learn the difference.